The Mien techniques were sadly missing from our product range for a long time because the densely worked cross-stitch embroidery has been copied by many of the other hilltribe groups and is difficult to work into a modern, desirable design that is affordable. Also, their numbers are small so it wasn’t easy to track down the villages.

The Mien is the tribe most often seen in full glorious traditional costume that consists of trousers with heavily embroidered legs, a long indigo-dyed tunic with a spectacular pompom ruff and an intricately wrapped turban.

There are a couple of techniques that can be ascribed to them. They embroider with a stitch that is worked vertically so looks like weaving which they work from the back so the pattern is not seen until they turn the cloth over. They also knot a string to create a “lace” that is used to outline a vaguely diamond-shape appliqué used mainly on a special occasion apron. We have seen them creating this border lace in pairs using a cat’s cradle kind of manoeuver and on a pillow-shaped frame with recognizable spools and weights.

However, their tassels and pompoms are such immense fun that we hope to create more products featuring them. Look for the tassels on the Wine bags and a new design pompom ruff on a WorldTote. Their lace-bordered appliqué is already one of our WorldTote designs.